Currently many businesses have intellectual property (IP) in the form of images, binary files and source code stored on internal, secure servers. This data is available through various mechanisms. One common form of availability is an internal Website which makes such information available for download as either stand-alone content or supporting content for Web-pages. Other mechanisms include FTP servers and file sharing servers. It is generally difficult to track the source of any images which are improperly distributed outside of the business, especially where FTP and Web servers are the source of the information. As a result, the intellectual property rights of the company may be compromised if the information is released outside of the company. Other than the images appearing in the public realm businesses have no way of tracking the image or other data back to the source of the leak.
A number of digital watermarking techniques are currently in use to identify the source of digital information such as stock photographs. It is relatively common to see a copyright notice superimposed on an image in order to prevent users from improperly using the image. Currently, most standard image watermarking technologies require that images be watermarked prior to their being requested. This is done generally with a visible watermark on the image (i.e. a semi-transparent over-lay of the company logo), or with a non-visible watermark, typically identifying the image as being the property of the company.
In most applications of digital watermarking, only one method of digital watermarking is employed, making the means to defeat the image watermarking technology much more feasible to achieve. By focusing only on a single method for digital watermarking, prior art processes are limited in providing long-term protection of the digital data.